Water flows from the Lake Conroe spillway after heavy rain from Tropical Storm Harvey caused the lake to rise on Aug. 29, 2017, in Conroe. As Lake Conroe Association members prepare opposition plans to the proposed plan for the temporary seasonal lowering of Lake Conroe, Kingwood residents encourage those opposed to the lowering to see why this may be beneficial in the long run. less

Water flows from the Lake Conroe spillway after heavy rain from Tropical Storm Harvey caused the lake to rise on Aug. 29, 2017, in Conroe. As Lake Conroe Association members prepare opposition plans to the ... more

Photo: Brett Coomer, Staff

Photo: Brett Coomer, Staff

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Water flows from the Lake Conroe spillway after heavy rain from Tropical Storm Harvey caused the lake to rise on Aug. 29, 2017, in Conroe. As Lake Conroe Association members prepare opposition plans to the proposed plan for the temporary seasonal lowering of Lake Conroe, Kingwood residents encourage those opposed to the lowering to see why this may be beneficial in the long run. less

Water flows from the Lake Conroe spillway after heavy rain from Tropical Storm Harvey caused the lake to rise on Aug. 29, 2017, in Conroe. As Lake Conroe Association members prepare opposition plans to the ... more

As Lake Conroe Association members prepare opposition plans to the proposed plan for the temporary seasonal lowering of Lake Conroe, Kingwood residents encourage those opposed to the lowering to see why this may be beneficial in the long run.

San Jacinto River Authority (SJRA) board members approved a proposed plan last week calling for the temporary seasonal lowering of Lake Conroe to 200 feet above mean sea level in the spring and 199 feet above msl in the fall. The plan must receive approval from the city of Houston to proceed.

The city of Houston serves as the majority water-right holder of Lake Conroe, owning two-thirds of the water rights, and still needs to weigh in on the proposal.

"This proposed plan is still a proposal at this time; nothing has been decided," SJRA General Manager Jace Houston reiterated. "We sent our proposed plan for the temporary seasonal lowering of Lake Conroe to the city of Houston and I met with them Thursday to discuss our plan. We have not heard back, either way, from the city as they are still investigating their water sources for drinking water."

The Courier reached out to the city of Houston Council Member Dave Martin's Office, who represents the Kingwood, who submitted the following response, "while (Martin) is excited to have coordination with our neighbors to the north, the details on this plan are still being worked out. We cannot comment on what we do not know but would be happy to provide a statement once all the details are worked out."

According to information from SJRA, starting April 1, it would begin to gradually reduce the level of Lake Conroe to 200 feet above mean sea level. Normal pool is 201 feet above msl. The plan would be to reach that mark by April 15. Then, on June 1, the SJRA would begin to capture flows to restore normal lake elevation.

For the fall, starting on Aug. 1, the lake would be gradually reduced to 200 feet above msl by Aug. 15, then continued to be drained to 199 feet above msl by Aug. 31.

According to Houston, if a storm enters the forecast while releases in the spring or the fall are being made to lower the lake level, releases should be stopped and the river allowed to drain out until rainfall is out of the forecast.

"If the levels of the lake are at 199 MSL before any of the lake releases, we won't release any of the water," Houston said.

The Lake Conroe Association plans to meet May 10 to discuss the seasonal lowering, outline the current situation, the plan to oppose reducing lake levels by greater than one foot and attempt to organize the lake community and agree upon the best course of action.

"This is not a meeting to discuss what we do not like," Mike Bleier, LCA president, stated in the meeting invitation. "We all know of these arguments. The objective is to focus forward on what we can do to address the situation."

Bleier could not be reached for further comment.

"We are for the lowering of Lake Conroe because this will allow there to be capable to hold rain in Lake Conroe until such time as we can get the West Fork of the San Jacinto River dredged and bigger and more floodgates installed on the Lake Houston Dam," Kingwood resident Bob Rehak said."We have a bottleneck in the Humble/Kingwood area; the water is backing up on us due. We haven't dredged the river in years."

The Army Corps of Engineers with the assistance of the Harris County Flood Control District was assigned to tackle the dredging of the West Fork of the San Jacinto River which will include dredging eight miles of the river from U.S. Highway 59 all the way to Lake Houston.

According to information from the Galveston District of the U.S. Army Corps, during an aerial tour of the area, "they identified potential dredging sediment deposit sites and areas of excessive shoaling that contribute to area flooding. Engineers estimate that potentially 1 to 3 million cubic yards, with 3 million cubic yards enough sand to completely fill two and a half Astrodomes, could be removed from the West Fork of the San Jacinto River to help reduce flooding risks."

The dredging and remediation of the lower West Fork of the San Jacinto River are expected to begin June 8 which could last anywhere from six months to 18 months.

According to Rehak, the Greater Houston Flood Mitigation Consortium released their report which stated the San Jacinto watershed contains 3 percent of the region's population, gets 0 percent of the budget and had 14 percent of the region's damages.

Among one of the consortium's recommendations in their report calls for the construction of a Montgomery County reservoir system/fourth reservoir.

"All these recommendations will help with flooding in our area, however, right now, that flooding risk is high especially if Lake Conroe is full to the brim," Rehak said. "If there is no cushion to absorb rain from a hurricane, it puts us all at greater risk. We still have people that are rebuilding from Harvey."

Late last August, Hurricane Harvey dumped up to 60 inches of rain in some areas, including more than 30 inches in the Lake Conroe water basin.

The SJRA was forced to release water at a rate of more than 79,000 cubic feet per second, which around 2-1/2 times the previous release rate record of around 33,000 cfs set in the 1994 floods. Kingwood was pummeled with floodwaters from the various tributaries in Montgomery County pouring water downstream, with SJRA and the Lake Conroe Dam release bearing the brunt of the blame for thousands of homes and businesses flooded and even swept away, including lawsuits filed.

According to information provided by the Lake Houston Area Chamber of Commerce, who organized the "Plea for 3" and eventually the "Plea 2 See" campaigns to share the effects of Hurricane Harvey with elected officials, 266 storefront businesses in the Kingwood were flooded during Harvey and approximately 80 percent did not have flood insurance because they were not located in a floodplain and required to have this insurance

The preliminary data by the Small Business Administration showed that 3,300-plus businesses were identified as damaged by floodwaters or storm-related damage, which is almost 40 percent of businesses in the Lake Houston Area Chamber, a staggering statistic.

Additionally, LCA addressed the maximum withdrawal of Lake Conroe that is set by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and whether this would count in the yield.

"Currently, the maximum yield (withdrawal) is 100,000 acre-feet per year," Bleier wrote in a letter to fellow LCA members. "SJRA owns 1/3 of that 'yield' while the City of Houston owns 2/3. Will any releases of water for flood control be counted against the maximum annual amount of water allowed to be withdrawn? Under current interpretation, TCEQ would state it does count against 'yield.' It is expected that SJRA and the City of Houston will attempt to modify their 'permit' with TCEQ to remove such a stipulation so that water released for flood control does not count against the 100,000 acre-feet annual 'yield.'"

Houston responded to this, by adding, "We also have not heard back from the TCEQ on this plan which is also very important if they will count these releases against us. This process is fluid and is continually changing each day."

Rehak has one last message for Lake Conroe homeowners, "We need all of the help we can get. We understand that some homeowners may be inconvenienced if the lake is lowered and may not be able to get their boats in-and-out as easily as before. But, we encourage them to come to Kingwood and look at the problem firsthand. This isn't a forever request to lower Lake Conroe, it's just temporary. We're all members of the same community and we're all in this together. If we work together, we can solve these issues."